[niknik]

I think this might be a silly question, but I am thinking of canning some runner beans as there is no room left in the freezer when filling the jars with beans do the jars need to be filled with water too?

[Yorkie]

I'm not sure, hopefully someone else here will know - or have you tried googling for recipes / instruction booklets for canners?

[Trillium]

This should answer most of your questions on bottling runner beans.

http://www.pickyourown.org/canninggreenbeans.htm

Because of the lack of acidity of beans, it's important to pressure can them rather than water bath them in order to prevent serious bacteria growth.

If you don't have or want to buy a pressure canner, here's a good recipe for pickled runner beans aka dilly beans:
http://www.pickyourown.org/greenbeans_pickled.htm

Try one batch as in the recipe to see if you'd like to adjust any of the seasonings before making a great quantity. Because there's vinegar in the recipe, you can simply water bath the bottles safely.

[niknik]

Thank you for your replies, I have given up on the canning, but think I could now write a book on 101 things to do with runner beans.